Acxiom Is Shopping LiveRamp; YouTube Evolves Revenue Model

Acxiom is shopping LiveRamp, a linchpin of data-driven advertising, Mike Shields reports for Business Insider. LiveRamp, the strongest player in the data-onboarder category, would have many suitors, with marketing tech giants like Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce and IBM likely to make a bid. More. Once upon a time LiveRamp was at the heart of Acxiom’s transformation strategy. So what gives? Acxiom may be looking to offload a potential headache under GDPR and increased global regulations. Or CEO Scott Howe might be under pressure from investors to create immediate value. Related: Acxiom has already signaled plans to sell another of its units, called Acxiom Marketing Solutions. More on that.

Hit Subscribe

YouTube is shaking up its ad-free offering with the launch of YouTube Music next week. YouTube Music will replace the platform’s subscription streaming service, YouTube Red, at the same price of $10 per month. YouTube Premium will cost $2 more and provide access to video content and original programming that used to be included with YouTube Red, Recode reports. YouTube could use the subscription-tier model to test the popularity of its original programming or it could be angling for a chunk of the streaming market owned by subscription apps like Spotify and Apple Music. “We view the announcements as generally negative for competitors,” Wells Fargo wrote in a note to investors. “YouTube’s ability to build a music subscriber base amid a highly competitive environment remains to be determined and will likely depend on quality and scale of marketing support.” More.

Inferred Consent

Facebook allows advertisers to target users on attributes that under GDPR are considered “sensitive categories,” writes The Guardian. While Facebook has asked EU consumers for consent to store and share political, religious or personal information they display on their profiles, it doesn’t have consent to target users by inferred traits based on their activity on the platform, which could be an issue under the new law. “Someone could have an ad interest listed as gay pride because they have liked a Pride-associated page or clicked a Pride ad, but it does not reflect any personal characteristics such as gender or sexuality,” according to Facebook’s statement. More.

ICO, I See You

The SEC shook up the cryptocurrency industry when it prodded all major advertising and acquisition channels to shut down paid media those projects needed to draw investors. This week the agency cheekily reminded people why those protections were put in place by setting up a fake page promoting a cryptocurrency investment opportunity. The fake startup, HoweyCoins, uses some common crypto-fraud techniques, like attaching a countdown clock to spur quick transactions. Fraudsters can easily spin up attractive sites loaded with SEO-friendly jargon and many uninformed “investors” will end up clicking themselves into a scam. Or, in this case, to a page warning browsers that they’re setting themselves up to be defrauded. Check out the release.